The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-10-20
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND
A TRUE FRIEND OF THE
SOLDIER!
CAPTURED FLAGS AND PENSIONS
What a Union General Has to
Say about Them.
General George w. Morgan at Cameron,
Ohio

In the closing remarks of his speech at
Cameron, Monroe county, September 17th,
General Morgan said:
How clean, broad and patriotic the ad-
ministration of President Cleveland has been,
when his order for the return of the captured
flags, deposited in the War Office, is made
the chief subject of complaint against it.
The order was given, reconsidered and
countermanded, and that is the beginning
and the ending of the whole affair. Not one
captured flag has been, or will be, removed
from the National Capital, and all this smoke
on the subject amounts to nothing.
"a nation is great family, in which union
and good will are vital elements; as envy
and discord are sources of weakness and fail
ure. We of the north can afford to be just
and generous, for after four years of heroic
battle, on either side, the victory was ours.
During the war there was no malice be-
tween the soldiers of the opposing armies.
The war over, certain northern and certain
southern troops, of their own motion, returned
captured flags which had been gallantly won,
and as gallantly defended on well contested
fields; and those acts of generous chivalry
were hailed with loud acclaim from ocean to
ocean, and from Canada to Mexico; and the
world believed that we were again united
people, bound together by the ennobling
sentiment of patriotism.
Inspired by such feeling, brave and
meritorious soldier of two wars, who, when
b,,+ /, hor an1;rted in tba fret regiment of
Pennsylvania volunteers in our war with
Mexico and who for gallantry was promoted
from the ranks to lieutenancy in regular
regiment, and who is now Adjutant General
of the army of the United States, suggested
to the Secretary of War, and he to the Chief
Magistrate of the Republic, that the captur-
ed flags deposited in the War Office should
be restored to those from whom they had
been gloriously won, and by whom they had
been gallantly defended. The President did
order those flags to be returned; but, on
further consideration, countermanded the
order. The order was generous and patri-
otic mistake; mistake prompted by a de.
sire to prove to the people of the south that
we are all countrymen again; that we have
but one hag-the star-spangled banner of the
Union. But for all that, the order was cal.
culated to, and did wound the SUSCEPTIBLE
ties of many Union soldiers, and this consti-
tuted the mistake. Of all men, soldiers are
the most impulsive, but as a rule they are
the most generous of men; and brave and
generous men should not allow party motives
to smother the grand and noble impulse OF
generosity. Let the man who never
committed a mistake, step to the front
For he is the only man who has a
right to cast stone at Grover
never committed a mistake. And if the
order was a mistake, so have been the assaults
made upon the President.
In one of the many histories Of the battle
of Waterloo, legend is told of two aides de
camp-the one of Napoleon, the other Of
Wellington, who crossed each others path,
each bearing an order from his chief, on the
execution of which the fate of the battle
might depend. The Frenchman bore dowr
upon the Englishman, who rode steadily OF
Englishman raised the stump of his sword
arm, which had been shot away in a former
battle, and the Frenchman, instead of strik
ing his disabled foe, brought his sword to :
salute and galloped on.
His doing so was mistake Of generosity
The Englishman should have been made
prisoner, and the failure to do so might hav'
lost the battle; but the nobility of the mis-
take has always received more praise thai
censure.
The great Napoleon is credited with say
ing: 'He is the best general who makes th
fewest mistakes" and despite all the grandeu
of his character, he was not an exception t.
his own rule.
But let US look at home and it is unneces
sary to go farther back than the great civi
war the grandest trial by battle the worl'
has ever seen; war which not only saves
the Union, but placed our country in tn
forefront of nations.
When the national flag was fired upon a
or nearly so, of military officers of skill an
experience, while the United States had NOR
than twelve hundred.
As for fighting, the American volunteer
north and south, fights as bravely in his frs
battle as in his last, as Shiloh and Donnelso
prove; but to make his courage and intell
gence thoroughly effective, there must b
organization, discipline and drill and thes
requisites the south did not possess, until